Dhanbad: The district administration is busy with preparations for the Prime Minister's scheduled visit to Dhanbad on May 25 to lay the foundation of the Rs 6,500 crore Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan (HURL) plant at Sindri, but there are doubts over whether Narendra Modi would take part in the IIT(ISM) convocation, the first one being held after the mining institute's upgrade to an IIT.
After receiving an official confirmation from PMO about Modi's visit, an HURL team, led by additional general manager M.C. Karan, visited Dhanbad district headquarters on Monday to finalise details.
Officials have now decided to hold the function at Baliapur, often used as landing and take-off point for VIP choppers. Modi is also scheduled to address a gathering there.
A joint team comprising officials of HURL and the district administration also visited Baliapur in the afternoon to take stock of the situation.
"After discussions, we decided to organise the foundation stone laying function at Baliapur as per instructions of senior officials. We also conducted a final inspection of the area although some preliminary work had been done during our previous visit on May 8," said Dhanbad deputy development commissioner Kuldip Choudhary.
However, there is little clarity about the time of the Prime Minister's arrival in Dhanbad. Modi is scheduled to attend the convocation of Visva-Bharati at Santiniketan in Bengal on May 25 after which he is scheduled to hold talks with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who also supposed to attend.
Students and faculty of IIT(ISM) are, however, keeping their fingers crossed. Preparations for the PM's proposed visit is on at the institute, especially at Penman Auditorium, the venue of the convocation.
Earlier, HURL additional general manager Karan said that preparations were going on in full swing.
"We are finalising the programme in close coordination with the district administration," he said.
HURL sources indicated that phase I of the ongoing scrap removal work, being carried out by Mumbai-based MTC Group, had been accelerated recently. Also, the foundation stone to be laid at Baliapur would be installed near Domgarh gate of the existing FCI factory.
The new HURL factory, based on natural gas, is likely to be commissioned by 2020.
HURL is a joint venture company comprising National Thermal Power Corporation (30 per cent stake), Indian Oil Corporation (30 per cent), Coal India (30 per cent) and Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCI). The new factory at Sindri will comprise a 2,200-tonne capacity ammonia plant, a 3,850-tonne urea plant and a 20MW-30MW power plant.
